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Sunday, 25 April 2010

If you thought things were busy for me before now, they're about to get a whooooole lot more busy as we're now in a position to exchange contracts on our new dream house (well, currently it's a nightmare but it'll become dreamy after some TLC ;-) ) and hopefully we'll be all moved in by the second week in May!

*scream!*

So, before that happens I'm going to attempt to pull together events of the month and a bit, starting, in this post, with March. Though must first add the caveat that it's not the most interesting of updates as I've been becoming rapidly more focused on my training of late and everything else, including my social life, has sort of taken a backseat...

This is me in my second home, doing what I love best :-)

As I don't remember what I had for breakfast most days (actually that's a lie as I tend to eat the same thing! But seriously I am rather forgetful)... I'm going to have to rely on things like timestamps on photos, entries in my workout wallet etc... No doubt there'll be a few days I can't account for as, well, I'm not really *that* interesting all in all, but please bear with me :-D

Oh and I'm going to enter the workouts that I remembered to log on another post (see clicky links) to try and keep a clear distinction between workout and waffle... and yes, I realise the lines are blurred most of the time ;-)

Dinner was turkey meatballs, very tasty, high in protein and low in fat - perfecto! :-)

8 March 2010

Exercise: Went climbing at The Castle, had a fab time though was relying heavily on upper body strength... which is cheating a little ;-)

Other stuff: I had a brace (train tracks) when I was about 21/22 years old. Unfortunately, as an adult, my jaw had already formed the shape it wanted to remain for the rest of my life so although I was able to move the teeth around into a nicer shape - ultimately they just wanted to go back to how they were!!

Because of this I've been wearing a retainer every night since the tracks came off which, as you can imagine, is *incredibly* attractive and quite a turn-on in the bedroom department ;-) Seriously though, although nobody has ever recoiled in horror, quips of "you putting your teeth in dear" get a bit wearing after a while!!

So I decided to get a very thin wire glued to the back of my teeth, out of sight, to keep my pearly whites nice and straight and today I had a mould of my mouth taken for this very reason.

Exciting stuff!!

Food:

My lunch that day was tuna, wholegrain basmati rice, beans and veg

Dinner was turkey stir-fry, a staple of my diet, served sans noodles (it just means I get an extra large serving ;-) )

Dinner was a seafood stir-fry, very easy to make and very delicious too :-)

10 March 2010

Food:

Lunch was chicken breast and quinoa salad. For this I boil the quinoa in water with a chicken stock cube. Once it's read I remove the quinoa but keep the chickeny water and then broil slices of chicken breast.

I guess I could probably do both at once if I wasn't convinced it would end up as a mess!! :-D

Joe was out this night so it was just me and my son. We had lamb chops, veg and sweet potato mash. Very tasty but not convinced lamb chops are the best value for money... there's so little meat!

11 March 2010

Exercise: None for today but I took a few more gym inductions.

Other stuff: Today was our bonus announcement - 15%! We were all so chuffed, what an awesome company I work for that every single employee gets the SAME percentage bonus :-)

Food:

I took Joe out to celebrate our fab bonus and we went to a Georgian Restaurant called Mimino which I will post about separately (when I get a chance!) in a restaurant review entry.

For now though, here's me admiring one of the 'features' of the picture behind me ;-)

Yes, I am a child.

And here is my boyfriend demonstrating why he is the most gorgeous man on the planet... look at that... hubba hubba!

Here's me sitting by the new multi-gym which I only really use for internal and external shoulder rotations - it's got a handy bench though ;-)

Oh and yes, I workout in jeans! The gym is two floors down from my desk so I just change my top if I'm doing upper body weights as don't really get sweaty. If I had my way the gym would be one floor down from my *bedroom*!!

Other stuff: I carried out yet more inductions... loving it though! :-)

Food:

Do you remember my healthy and very tasty Moussaka dish? Well, my son has decided that although he'll eat practically every vegetable going, he doesn't really like aubergine - which is an integral part of this dish!!

So, I decided to alter the recipe a bit and replace the aubergine with butternut squash which I absolutely adore so not exactly much of a trade-off ;-)

18 March 2010

Other stuff: More gym inductions! Plus I went to see Graham at my wonderful physiotherapy practice, Balance

Following on from the other pic I decided to take a post-workout picture of my pumped arms and delts ;-)

Food:

Ahh, takeout from Nandos... half a chicken (skin donated to my two hungry men) with macho peas (herbed and minted, very nice!) and mixed veg (my own addition, I love the mixed bags you get for about a pound, you just pierce them and bung em in the microwave for a couple of minutes et voila!)

I rarely eat the hot meals cooked by the lovely people in our staff canteen. That's not because the food isn't delicious, it's more that I like to know exactly what goes into the meals and I *know* there's a lot of butter and salt employed!

However, I was tempted beyond belief by the pork chops on offer so *had* to have one ;-)

You can see all the oil on the veg though huh? I do wish they'd just cook the vegetables naked... I mean with nothing on... no, you know what I mean!!

Dinner was grilled salmon and mixed veg. We eat a lot of salmon in our house :-)

After this meal I went to the gym and did some light cardio while reading the essential reading that is Muscle & Fitness Magazine, God I love this magazine!

Other stuff: I got my new tooth today! I do hope it's stronger than the other... might steer clear from the Jerky for a bit, perhaps invest in some Biltong/Droewors...

Food:

Lunch was chicken breast and salad:

Dinner was rather lovely. I bought some skinless free range chicken thighs and coated them in jerk seasoning, wrapped them in foil and stuck them in the oven. Results were rather delicious if I do say so myself! I also stir-fried some peppers and other mixed veg to have with it.

24 March 2010

Other stuff: I was off work all day doing an OU assignment

Food:

As I was at home I was able to make a smoothie :-) This one had loads of my favourite fruit - raspberries - and some blueberries, and apple, 0% fat greek yogurt and Maxitone Definity in banana flavour.

Other stuff: More gym inductions today - more people being encouraged to get fit and healthy!!

Food:

Tonight was rather special.

I'd been whinging to Joe that he'd not taken me out for aaaaaages so he decided to his usual thing of making up for it by taking me to a restaurant with the WOW factor!

The restaurant we went to was called Le Trois Garcons and the minute I walked through the doors I fell in love it it!

I'm not going to say much about the food (other than we had my absolute favourite thing ever - Chateaubriand - drooooollllll!!), or the decor (which is more than worthy of talking about) as I want to save that for my forthcoming (honest!) restaurant review post... but it's safe to say that the whole experience, including the food, surroundings, atmosphere etc made it probably the best meal I've ever had - seriously!

Here's me enjoying some rather nice red wine from an obscenely large glass :-)

And here's Joe in front of a pretty epic painting of some biblical scene... I did prefer the view in front of it, though I am still trying to work out if it's just his positioning in front of a dark bit on the painting of if he really truly does have hair that high!! ;-)

27 March 2010

Exercise:

Other stuff:

Food:

For my lunch I took 1/2 tin of tuna in spring water, cheese (40g half fat mature cheddar) and some chopped up tomatoes:

Other stuff: Last day of inductions before the 'gym window' closed! Don't see why we can't just keep it open all year as there are a group of us more than happy to carry out inductions in our spare time but it's all a bit political right now... my company is a great place to work but at times what makes it different from other places isn't always all that great... there's a lot of inflexibility and reluctance to move with the times...

Anyway, enough of that...

Food:

Lunch was salmon with spiced apple and pickled red cabbage and some salad on the side.

---------------------------------

And that's me done for the month of March! Sorry if it read more like a newspaper account than a diary but it was quite a while ago... I just hope I can catch up with April before May but it looks unlikely as hopefully we'll exchange tomorrow and move the week after - yee haaaaw!

Hope everyone of you is well and had a groovy weekend, many congratulations to all the London Marathon runners out there, you all rock and I'm full of admiration!

Yes, yes... I realise that this report is over a month late (the Vitality Show was on the 21st March!), but I have been a little busy lately so thanks for sticking with me!

The nice people at Maxitone had sent me some tickets to the Vitality Show taking place in Earl's Court in London. Unfortunately they were weekday tickets and as the show closed each night at 6pm I wasn't able to get along.

Luckily, the awesome company that is Wholebake who make the amazingly delicious drool-inducing 9Bar, (which I scoff on a regular basis!), were also giving away tickets and I was very fortunate to receive a pair of weekend tickets - rock on!

So, that afternoon my lovely friend Gemma and I rocked up, albeit it rather late (my fault!) at the show.

First we went to see Mark Gould (MD of Wholebake) to say thanks for the tickets and to make some important 9 Bar purchases.... ooooh yeah!

I'd eaten one of their pumpkin bars the day before and it was so tasty I practically inhaled it!! Seriously, I was going to photograph it like I usually do but it was gone before I'd blinked!

Mmmm...

I think my favourite flavour is the Flax one though... that might just be because it helped more or less resurrect me from my self-induced-hangover-from-hell deathbed.

Seriously, I was in a bad way! I managed to (despite lying flat out on my back) gingerly nibble my way through one of these beauties and felt somewhat more human (did end up with crumbs in the bed mind!!)

Anyway, enough about that!

Next I took Gemma over to say hi to Kate Wells who is probably the busiest woman in the world as she manages both Maximuscle and Maxitone brands! She's absolutely lovely and super positive about Maxitone's role in helping women to get into shape :-)

Next Gemma and I nipped over to the Studio 1B stall as I'm quite keen to get some more pics taken as I (think I!) look very different to how I did at the Maxitone Body of 2009 photoshoot, definitely in the arms at least!

They had a special deal going where you could get a session including hair, makeup etc - and a print - for £10 so I immediately snapped it up...

Then they took a pic of me and Gemma:

At first we were both thrilled with the picture but stood there looking/feeling slightly bemused... what was odd about that pic?!

We'd been airbrushed!!! I was bag free and my skin was all one tone (my skin isn't rubbish but it's definitely not *that* smooth!)

Not sure how to feel... I mean I like the pic, it looks good and it's definitely me, but I guess I felt slightly insulted that they'd just gone ahead and computerised all my imperfections away without prior warning haha!

So now I'm not sure if I want the photoshoot anymore, will I be photoshopped? Will it be a true representation of me or just somebody else's interpretation of how I *should* look?!

Anyway - onwards!

Next I was conned into buying an EFX wristband which I feel a bit of a wally about. I fell for their Balance Test 'proof', and the testimonials of people claiming to have had their pains relieved and, in particular one person who said their tinnitus had cleared up - something I've been suffering from for about a year now.

Obviously it didn't cure anything and I'm now going to see an ENT specialist in a few weeks... wish I'd just done that earlier and saved myself spending £25 on what is a not unattractive, but still utterly useless, piece of black and pink rubber!!

I have plenty of green teabags so was keen to try the powdered stuff as they'd expertly mixed it with apple juice and it did taste rather lovely.

If you mix it with water it's not entirely hideous, but does taste like you're eating the two day old remnants of a mowed lawn.

Next onto grab me some Bear Nibbles! Has anyone eaten anything from this company before? Their stuff is lovely and super healthy too! The fact that there are so few ingredients on their packets speaks volumes!

Man these are delicious! They're under 100 cals and sugar-free! You can add them to things like 0% fat greek yogurt to make a much healthier version of the crappy synthetic chemical and sugar pumped offerings you find in the yogurt section of your local supermarket!

Look at these beauties!

That's the Apple Crumble version, the Cocoa Cherry Pie is also really tasty, the cherry pieces are so cute and they look, and taste, like they should be unhealthier than they are!!

I also picked up a couple of packets of their mango pineapple Fruit Nibbles which are just divine!

Gemma and I carried on browsing round, tasted some yummyness but didn't really get tempted by anything else until I got to a cheese stall where they were selling off humungous lumps of half fat extra mature cheese for £2!! I bought one, of course, it lasted forever and I can safely say it knocks spots off the Sainsbury's Davidstowe 1/2 fat cheese which is the only other low fat cheese I can stand!

I can't remember the name of the company who made the cheese - dammit! I really want to get some more... might contact the organisers of the show to see if they can send me some details!

So, all showed out, Gemma and I decided to beat a retreat... however, our plans of escape were soon scuppered by an energetic and enthusiastic Swinky girl, eager to make a last-minute sale, who managed to ensnare us with talk of beautiful hair accessories and live demonstrations of such.

Damn this girl was good!

I ended up buying two as was so impressed. To be honest they're just what I need as I'm pretty rubbish with all things girlie. Don't get me wrong, I love my make-up and apply it with great gusto (but only when I'm going out, mind!) but as for all other aspects of girlyness - i.e. hair, nails, handbags, accessorising etc... well I'm just really quite lacking, truth be told! *hangs head in shame*

I don't really wear much - if any - make-up during the day, I'd rather wear a rucksack than a handbag, and I'll take flats over heels any day! But then I'm quite tall so don't really need the added height unless... I'm trying to create an impression! ;-)

So, what I'm trying to say is that I don't really even blow-dry my hair let alone curl/dye it - or even get it cut very often for that matter!! But these Swinky gizmos are fab as a hair spaz like me just has to slide them in and voila - instant pretty hair!! :-D

You can even jazz up your boyfriend's hair too - here's the lovely glamorous Joe modelling one of my Swinkys for your viewing pleasure ;-)

Tuesday, 13 April 2010

On 17th May 2006, the week before my 27th Birthday I had a bone density scan performed at the place I used to work.

I'd heard I could get a special corporate deal - they're usually rather expensive - and I was quite worried because of the osteoporosis risk present in my family history. My own Gran had really bad osteoarthritis and I was concerned about my own bones - particularly because I knew that my diet was poor as I was still in the grips of my various eating disorders and I was worried about the effects this had on my body.

The results of the scan were quite scary - especially given my age - but not particularly surprising. Years of poor eating, inadequate supplementation and a lack of exercise had left me with a below average reading:

(see the clear square on the graph *below* the average line)

I'm not going to lie and say that *immediately* after that reading was taken I turned my life around and started exercising and eating properly because that's simply not true, it's taken a good few years to turn my life around.

I *had* started running at the point, and completed a triathlon, but I was still bulimic and I was drinking excessively.

The following year saw the breakdown of a six and a half year relationship, a change of job, home (three times!) and my son starting secondary school! All stressful stuff :-(

However, 2007-2008 saw me in a happier place where I began a relationship with Joe and gradually started to claw back control over my eating - what went in, and what stayed down.

I rediscovered my love of weight training (the last time before this that I'd picked up any weights was when I was 19/20!!) and found focus and also, unexpectedly, support through the people who read and comment on my blog!

I can't even begin to describe how beneficial this blog has been in my recovery. Although I'd managed to conquer my bulimia before I started keeping my online diary, and I'd really like to think that I wouldn't ever have gone back to that dark place again - I know that this has kept me strong and it serves as a daily reminder of how far I've come and just how different a person I am to that miserable, scared, selfish, helpless woman who almost destroyed her body.

I can safely say that I will NEVER go back to that again, not now I've experience how good it is to look and feel strong.

I have learnt so much over the past year as a result of reading other people's blogs, and health articles, fitness and muscle magazines. I never thought I'd find a way of eating which was healthy and suited me down to the ground.

I especially never thought that this would be a bodybuilder's diet!! It's true though, the amount of money that is invested on research into how different foods and nutrients interact with, and improve your body, its functionality and performance is amazing! I'm pretty sure that no other diet organisations/plans/food manufacturers invest so heavily in science-driven proof!

Anyway, what I'm saying is that I've finally reached an equilibrium between the food that goes in and the way I feel about my body. My desire to feed it, fuel it, keep it running at full strength and capacity for as long as possible has finally conquered all other thoughts of reaching an impossibly slim size.

Although I don't run as often as I'd like to because of long-term injury, I do a lot of dumbbell - as well as bodyweight - training as well as more aerobic high-impact classes (like Boxercise, Zumba etc...) and I walk a lot as well.

I also do spinning classes and cycle too but it's important to note that these do not have any effect on bone strengthening, neither does swimming, rowing, or any other exercise where your bodyweight is supported.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't do them as they are hugely beneficial to your cardiovascular health, just that you should incorporate some impact and resistance training in there too.

Basically, any exercise which results in impact will stimulate bone growth.

ALSO, weight-training promotes bone growth too because the stronger muscles become, the more demands are placed on surrounding bones that they attach to. This stimulates bone formation, as the bones strengthen to meet the demands placed on them - all good news in the fight against osteoporosis/degeneration :-)

Tuesday, 6 April 2010

Weightloss has been rubbish! Remember I lost 6lbs in one week... well I put on 2lbs the week after, but then have lost it again so down to 148lbs but still waaaaay too much, blergh...

still, not all doom and gloom, have lost quite a bit in inches off my body and my upper half is definitely a lot leaner.

So, now it's make or break time for me really, if I can't pull it together and work the hardest I ever have then I might as well forget this whole damn thing.

So... have taken steps to address this and will go into more in another post but for now... Well, I was taking a look at the pictures from last year's FAME 2009 Competition held in Brighton and thought I'd share some pics of the amazing bodies on display... so, without further ado, here's an idea of what I'm up against on May 29th! *shriek*!!

Eleni won the Fitness Model Category in FAME last year and was a runner up in the Bikini division too - not bad eh?!

Not surprising when she looks like this!

And here's a collection from her 'themed' round, great outfit, great quads! :-)

Next I'll show you Mechell Grey who basically did the opposite of Eleni and won the Bikini contest and was runner up in the Fitness Model category:

Doesn't she look awesome too?!

Last, but by no means least, we have the stunning Claire Harper (who also has her own fab site: http://www.claireharper.co.uk/ with competition advice and fabulous pics on it) who was another runner up in the Fitness Model category but WON the Miss Figure round - and rightfully so!

Now *that* is serious competition and I know that this year it's going to be even more fierce - the fabulous and inspirational Angie Weston who runs and manages the whole UK FAME competition was overwhelmed by how popular it was last year... the fact that it's in London, over the whole weekend, only goes to show that it must have grown enormously in popularity!

So I also know I don't have a hope in hell of even getting close to placing!

But that's not why I'm entering... it's all about confidence... I love the Body Proud philosophy and if I feel happy enough with my body to stand on stage with a bunch of buff ladies in a bikini, bucketloads of fake tan and transparent scarily-high 'stripper heels', then as far as I'm concerned I've absolutely won and nobody can take that away from me... at the moment the thought of it scares the hell out of me but I think a little of what you're scared of makes you stronger in the long run :-)

I've got to go now and get some sleep, up early for AM cardio, training in earnest has begun...

Sunday, 4 April 2010

Due to not really recording any aerobic or core exercise (other than Boxercise, which is a regular thing) during March and early April, these entries will be pretty empty/weights only...

Promise to improve! :-)

I didn't do Boxercise this week!!

*sob* :'-(

My back was too sore... this broke my heart and prompted me to finally get over to my physiotherapy practice, Balance, where I saw an amazing woman called Allison Swann who is just fantastic!

Not only did she do some massage and manipulation work which resulted in basically ZERO pain the next day, she also showed me some awesome hip exercises for opening up/mobilising that region and improving strength and flexibility :-)

A little about me...

Welcome to my health and fitness website.
I started this blog to document my weight loss and during that time I discovered how much health and fitness meant to me.
I work and live in London with my wonderful boyfriend and equally wonderful (though sometimes sulky and often emotional) teenage son. I am a qualified Gym Instructor and also working towards a Diploma in Personal Training and Sports Nutrition.
As a result of gluten and lactose intolerance in the family, from mid-2011 onwards our diet moved more towards that of a Paleo/Primal approach and we’ve never felt healthier.
We’ve also never been more anti-conventional dietary wisdom as we are now.
I’m not terribly good at updating my blog as life gets in the way a lot but I plan to record life and food/recipes etc as and when I can.
I tend to microblog a lot more frequently so feel free to make contact on twitter.
TJx